Search results for: "Suffering"

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  2. Wandering On, Shooting Arrows
    When the Buddha explains the causes for suffering, he traces them back to ignorance—ignorance of the four noble truths. When that ignorance is ended with knowledge (vijjā), he says, all the causes of suffering come to an end. The question is: How do you get from ignorance to knowledge? There’s a passage where he explains how. He describes the steps of dependent … 
  3. In Cahoots with Your Defilements
     … We see our defilements as our friends, and suffering, pain, difficulty as our enemies. But these friends who are our defilements—they’re false friends. They tell us what we like to hear but they take us to suffering. And yet we say that we don’t like suffering. If we were actually able to look at suffering square in the face and say … 
  4. Comprehending Suffering
     … That’s an important step in learning how to comprehend suffering. As you develop concentration, you’re getting ready to comprehend suffering more and more. Because the Buddha didn’t say something useless like “Life is suffering,” or something bland and also useless like “There is suffering.” Sometimes you hear people say, “Well, all you have to do is acknowledge the fact that suffering … 
  5. From Heedfulness to Purity
    If someone were to ask you, “Do you sincerely want to be happy?” You’d probably say, “Of course.” But if someone were to look at your life, is that the conclusion they would draw? That you do want to be happy sincerely? We all come to the Dhamma because we’re suffering in one way or another. We want to find a way … 
  6. The Buddha’s Buffet
     … Then he says what ties all these forms of suffering together is clinging to the five aggregates. That’s where the analysis gets radical, because we think suffering is something that we’re on the receiving end of. We don’t realize that, one, we do things that cause suffering, and two, the suffering itself is something we do. The clinging is the suffering … 
  7. Radical Questioning
     … The Buddha taught there is suffering, right? Right. There is a cause for suffering. Right. And there is path to the end of suffering. All these things involve duties. We’re trying to make a change, right? We see where there’s suffering and we’re trying to put an end to that suffering.” He began to see people who were getting uncomfortable. So … 
  8. From Grief to Compassion
    In India they developed an aesthetic theory that explained why you can see people suffering onstage and still get some enjoyment from it. And it’s not that you’re being sadistic or enjoy their suffering. You sympathize with their suffering, but you enjoy the sympathy. And the theory comes down to the idea that onstage emotions are being portrayed and the audience tastes … 
  9. A Heart & Mind of Goodwill
     … So thinking in these ways can give rise to a heart state of compassion where you empathize with the sufferings of all beings. You look around: Everybody is suffering. Even people who are wealthy, powerful: They’re suffering. Devas up in the heavens are suffering, to say nothing of the ordinary sufferings we see all around us. This reflection follows the pattern the Buddha … 
  10. The Noble Truths Come First
     … As the Buddha said, the reason we suffer is not because of uncomfortable or unpleasant things outside: sights, sounds, smells, tastes, tactile sensations. It’s because of what we bring to these things from the inside: That’s why we can suffer even from pleasant things. We suffer, we feel stress, because we cling. In fact, the clinging is the suffering. The word clinging … 
  11. The Skill of Not Suffering
     … That’s the suffering that’s just a natural part of living in this conditioned world. But that suffering doesn’t have to impinge on the mind. The suffering that weighs the mind down is the suffering that comes from what you’re doing right now. You want to learn to do it differently so that you don’t suffer. You have the freedom … 
  12. The Wheel of Dhamma
     … This is the noble truth of suffering, this noble truth of suffering is to be comprehended, and then realizing that he had comprehended it. Truth, duty, and the duty completed. Then it lists the same things for the cause of suffering, the cessation of suffering, and the path to the cessation of suffering. You’ve got four noble truths with three levels of knowledge … 
  13. Abandoning Craving
     … the same way that the Buddha approached the problem of suffering. You don’t solve the problem at the symptoms, you solve it at the cause. You comprehend suffering, but you don’t let go of the suffering. You let go of the cause, which is craving: three kinds of craving—craving for sensuality, craving for becoming, craving for non-becoming. So it’s … 
  14. Dichotomies
     … On the one hand, you have suffering and the cause of suffering, and on the other hand, you have the path leading to the end of suffering and the actual cessation of suffering. Those things—suffering and not suffering, the cause of suffering and the path to the end of suffering—are really are different. In fact, this is what discernment is all about … 
  15. Right View: Feeding Instructions
    When the Buddha first started teaching after his awakening, the first thing he talked about was the problem of suffering or stress and how to put an end to it. The explanations he gave are called right view. In other words, they’re a view that you hold in mind because it’s effective. It helps direct you as to what to do when … 
  16. Anti-slacker Dhamma
    There’s a book that came out recently that promotes what might be called Slacker Buddhism, the idea being that life is suffering, everything is impermanent, therefore there’s no point in trying. We suffer because we try to be happy, so if we just stopped trying then everything would be fine. You can understand this kind of teaching as a corruption of the … 
  17. Look After Yourself with Ease
     … The Buddha tells you to try to exercise dispassion for the craving that causes the suffering, and you’re also supposed to comprehend the suffering itself. In another point, he says, “What is comprehension? Comprehension is seeing things to the point of dispassion and disenchantment.” So you have to learn to be dispassionate both for suffering and for its cause. As he says, the … 
  18. Two Types of Dukkha
    The Buddha talks about two kinds of stress or suffering, in two main contexts. There’s a stress or suffering in the fact that all things that are fabricated and inconstant. There’s stress simply in the fact of the fabrication. The fact that they’re inconstant means that as you focus on trying to find happiness in them, it’s really hard. It … 
  19. Endurance Through Discernment
     … What makes them suffering that weighs down the mind is clinging—clinging to the aggregates. The point being that if you could stop the clinging, then aging, illness, and death would not be suffering, or you wouldn’t have to suffer from them. They would be painful, but the mind wouldn’t have to suffer from them. It’s somewhat ironic that you hear … 
  20. The Wheel of Dhamma
     … The first of the noble truths is dukkha, which means pain, suffering, and stress. The second truth is the cause of suffering and stress. The third is the cessation of suffering and stress. And the fourth is the path to that cessation. In other words, the Buddha is saying that suffering and stress are problems that can be solved. In fact, the four truths … 
  21. The Safety of Dualities
     … Why is putting an end to suffering a skillful thing? Because as long as you’re suffering, you’re going to cause other people to suffer, too. It’s when you learn how not to cause yourself any suffering, that’s when you don’t have to cause anybody else any suffering—because as we’re suffering, we’re feeding, both physically and, more … 
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